Smith outlines a big year for defence

Updated
January 15, 2013 18:17:26

Speaking to the media for the first time this year, Defence Minister Stephen Smith has announced the formal transition to Afghan-led security in Uruzgan province by the end of 2013, and outlined other challenges facing the Australian Defence Force.

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.